


Intricate Combos

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: M/M, angst that turns to fluff, implied depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 13:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5128709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray and Ryan are neighbors in the world's shittiest apartment building, and Ryan can hear everything happening in the other apartment through the paper thin walls. It used to be Ray and his girlfriend laughing and carrying on, but now nothing but silence fills the walls. And Ryan intends to find out why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intricate Combos

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from a lyric in "Charlie Black" by Modern Baseball, which is the song I wrote this to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRdmaOe3QPg

It had been annoying at first, really it had. The giggling at 2 am when he had work the next morning. The yelling at each other over Mario Party at insane volumes every Friday night. The goddamn showtunes and horrible off-key singing. If he heard the words “guilty feet ain’t got no rhythm” again he might explode.

But, Ryan had gotten over it. The kid next door was actually pretty cool, despite the fact that he and his girlfriend were probably the loudest people in existence. His name was Ray, and he apparently streamed video games for a living. Ryan had watched a couple of his streams (well, a couple was just about as many as he was willing to admit to), and he found them really entertaining. He’d started to make more conversation with the lad, about video games, movies, anything really. Oh, and he complained almost 24/7 about the noise, which would always garner a laugh and an “I’m so fucking sorry, dude” from Ray.

They weren’t the best of friends, but Ryan still felt like they were at least on good terms. Which was why he was concerned when after a long night of yelling in the apartment next to him, the next night was silent. And the night after that. And then the next week. And then Ray had stopped going out as much as he had been. Ryan could barely coax a “hello” out of him on the rare occasion he caught Ray in the hall.

He’d noticed fewer and fewer streams, and the few that there were sometimes had no facecam, and sometimes even no audio. Just gameplay, with nothing else to fill the silence.

And then days had stretched into months. He couldn’t remember the last time Ray had streamed, or had even left the house other than to pick up groceries. The other side of the wall was dead silent.

So here he was, 10 minutes after he first started knocking on the door, waiting for any sign that there was still life in the apartment.

“Ray! I’ve been knocking for a long time, and I know you’re in there. I just want to make sure you’re alright.”

He heard the sound of metal clinking, and the door swung open, just enough to reach the end of a safety chain. Ray peered out through the gap, looking at Ryan suspiciously. He looked tired, the bags under his eyes dark and his face covered in unshaven scruff.

“What do you want, Ryan?”

“I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine, now please go away.” Ray tried to close the door before he could reply, but Ryan slid his hand into the gap.

“Ray, please just talk to me. I know you’re not okay. I haven’t seen you smile in like, three months. You don’t ever leave your house anymore. You’re not fine, or okay, something’s wrong.”

Ray seemed taken aback, by both the fact that Ryan’s hand was still firmly curled around his doorframe, or that he actually cared enough to come talk. He said nothing, just giving Ryan a confused stare.

“Can I…can I come in? I just want to talk, I promise.”

Ray thought it over, then motioned for him to take his hand away. He closed the door, and for a second, Ryan thought he might just leave it shut. But, seconds later, the sound of a chain sliding away led to the door opening fully, Ray standing aside to let Ryan in.

He walked into the tiny apartment, surprised at how tidy it was. Everything was seemingly in its place, in a neat order. Ryan sat on the couch, and noticed that the coffee table was covered in a thin layer of dust. The whole apartment seemed to be, now that he was looking more closely. Ray closed the door and sat down beside him on the couch, looking at him intently.

“Well, you’re here now, asshole. Start talking.”

“Right, I just…I was worried. About you.”

“What makes you think I’m not okay? I’m fine, Ryan. Really.”

“Ray, you don’t make any sort of noise anymore. The walls are paper thin, I’d be able to hear you laughing or even crying but you don’t do anything. You’re just silent. And…and I know why, or at least I think I do, but still. You barely leave the house, that can’t be healthy.” As he talks, he tries to appeal to Ray, to make him emote in any sort of way, but he can’t. Ray just sits there with a straight face.

“You think you know but you don’t. You don’t know jack shit, pretty boy.” Ray’s words are cold, emotionless, almost. But his face is changed. He looks immensely heartbroken.

“I want to know. I want to help you feel okay again.”

“Why?”

The question throws Ryan off guard. Why? Because he wants to help someone he worries about. Why does he worry? Because, somewhere along the line, between the pointless conversations in the hall, between inadvertently listening in on all those hushed voices on the other side of the wall, between the time the silence started and now, he’d fallen for Ray? Yeah, that was it.

“Because you deserve to be cared about. To have someone be there for you.”

“No I don’t. Everyone leaves eventually. My dad, Sandy, everyone. You’re no exception. You’ll act like you care, and then you’ll leave. There’s something wrong with me, and you’ll see it, and you’ll leave.” His tone is harsh and angry. On the point of tears, but not allowing them to spill over. Ryan can feel his chest tighten, and he almost wants to pull the obviously upset lad into a hug.

“What if I don’t? What if I l…what if I really do care about you, and I don’t leave?”

“You’d be the first.”

“There’s always room for firsts.”

“Yeah, not here, not with this.” A sad smile from Ray, and suddenly Ryan is galvanized into action. He gets up, motioning for Ray to stay put. He goes and grabs his laptop from his apartment and brings it back to the couch, putting it on the dusty coffee table. The fan whirs, and blows dust up into the air.

“What are you-“

“No questions yet, just wait,” Ryan replied, fiddling with some settings on the screen. “Alright, look now.”

Ray studied the screen, scrolling down and down, until finally looking up at the older gent.

“I don’t…I don’t get it.”

“That’s a history of every stream you’ve ever done since last June. More specifically, I’ve watched every one since we properly met.”

“I…I don’t-“

Ryan looked Ray right in the eyes, making sure the lad was paying full attention.

“If I didn’t care about you, would I bother to be an active listener of your work? Would I bother to talk to you about every single little thing that might make you smile, even when you started to just turn away whenever you saw me? Jesus Christ, Ray, would I bother to even try to come talk to you now? After not even hearing a word from you in months?”

“N-no. Ryan, don’t-“

“People care about you, Ray. I care about you.”

“You don’t know me! You’ve never even been in my fucking apartment ‘til today!” Ray jumps from the sofa, nearly screaming at Ryan. Ryan stands up, too, using his intimidating height to his advantage.

“Really? I don’t? I know your dad left when you were 12, and that it fucked you up so much that you can’t watch movies with really strong father-son relationships. I know that you’ve watched A Christmas Carol almost 17 times in the last year. I know that you can’t cook to save your fucking life, like seriously, how have you been eating all this time? And I know that you fucking listen to “Careless Whisper” way too fucking much.” Ryan almost yells too, the walls shaking with the force of his voice.

“What the fuck, how…how do you know all that?” Ray looks scared, suddenly. Shit, that last bit kinda sounded like a stalker, didn’t it?

“The walls are so fucking thin that I could hear everything, literally everything you said.”

“Oh shit. So…so you heard all my fucking drama, huh? And you still talked to me?”

“Yes, Ray, of fucking course I did. Because you’re an interesting fucking person. And I care about you. I…I _care_ about you, even if you don’t want to believe that.”

“Fuck you. What was the point of all this? This huge fucking show, for what? You trying to sell me some Jehovah’s Witness magazine or something? There’s gotta be easier ways, man.”

“Ray, I just want you to be okay again. I want to hear your stupid adorable laughter at 3am, and talk to you in the halls and see your fucking smile again. I want you to be the asshole that used to steal my sweaters from the shared dryer.”

“Okay, first of all, those sweaters were really comfy, okay? Second of all, just stop with this whole act. What reason could you possibly have to care about me?”

“Because I love you, you asshole! Is that what you want me to say? You want me to admit that I was kinda glad when you and Sandy broke up? That I’ve spent the last 3 months worried sick about your stupid ass because you locked yourself up away from the rest of the world?” Ryan is practically screaming at this point, his voice cracking a couple times. Ray just looks shell-shocked, one hand shaking and curled into a fist at his side. Someone from down the hall yells something that sounds like “just kiss already!”, and it’s like a switch is thrown.

Ray laughs, for the first time in a long time. He almost doubles over in laughter, a loud, barking laugh that sounds almost as dusty as the apartment around them. Ryan can’t help but chuckle too, the tension lifting off his shoulders.

And then Ray leans forward, and his lips are on Ryan’s, one hand curling into his shirt, pulling him downward. Ray tastes like toothpaste and cheap fruit rollups, but Ryan doesn’t care, he’s just so surprised and enraptured that he almost sighs when Ray pulls away again.

“You’re a fucking asshole, dude,” Ray says with a wide smile.

“How am I an asshole?”

“Because you should’ve called me out on my self-pitying bullshit sooner. Maybe then I would’ve spent less time feeling sorry for myself and more time feeling sorry for you for having to deal with me.”

“You kinda have a point there.”

“Dude, no I fucking don’t. I never have any good points.”

“Also a fair point. So now there’s a paradox, because your point is good, in that you don’t have any good points.”

Ray laughs again, punching Ryan on the arm lightly. “Don’t make me regret this.”

“Hey, no promises. Actually, just one promise.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“I’m not leaving until you want me gone.”

“I think I can live with that.”


End file.
